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Today: Senate vote to move health care reform to debate
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The US Senate will vote today on whether or not to allow floor debate on the 2,074 page health care reform legislation that has been crafted behind closed doors and without any opposition support.
A few notes from the bill:
1. The Senate health care bill contains the word "tax" 511 times, uses the word "require" 1,000+ times, and the word "shall" 3,500+ times.
2. The new taxes take effect in Januray 2010, but the benefits will not begin until 2013, conveniently following the 2012 election.
3. Senator Landrieu (D-LA) secured $100,000,000 in funding for her state to be included in the bill. Landrieu has said for more than a week that she was undecided on her vote but yesterday mentioned to the AP that she may be leaning toward progressing the bill toward debate.
4. According to popular polls such as Rassmussen, the Senate health care bill has only 35% approval among citizens of the United States. "Hillary-care" had a 36% approval rating and it failed miserably.
5. The bill includes $500,000,000,000 in Medicare & Medicaid funding cuts.
6. The bill includes new taxes for medical devices such as hip replacements, toothbrushes, pace makers, crutches, casting materials, cathedars, and tampons.
7. The bill includes taxes on elective surgeries such as botox, cosmetic surgery, and breast reconstruction.
8. Persons illegally living and working in the United States would be required to purchase health care insurance. The bill fails to explain how to track, monitor, or reprimand illegal immigrants.
9. The bill does not include medical malpractice reform, ensuring millions of dollars in frivolous lawsuits against the United States health care insurance program. This will cost all taxpaying Americans to pay multitudes of lawyers even though they may not be on the government program.
10. The Senate health care reform bill will cost TRILLIONS of dollars that the United States does not and will not have. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office's 10 year projection is over $1,000,000,000,000, however that only includes 6 years of services. Again, taxes will begin to be collected for years prior to the program taking effect, so the true annual cost will not be realized until well after the analyzed 10 year period.
11. Federally funded abortion IS in the Senate bill.
12. The Senate bill gives the Secretary of Health and Human Services, currently Kathleen Sebelius, more power than has ever been given to that office.
13. In the Senate health care bill, the Department of Health and Human Services will be responsible for determining the amount of medication a patient will be given, what procedures are "medically necessary," and which medical tests will be permitted for those on the government-run health care system.
14. The bill mandates that every person hold health care insurance that meets the requirements of the Department of Health and Human Services, or face a fine.
15. The bill mandates businesses to provide health insurance that meets the standards set by DHS for every worker or face a penalty. The bill will NOT guarantee that your employer will keep coverage since it will be much more cost effective for the employer to drop health insurance programs in favor of the fine. Thus many workers will be forced into the governement-run health care program.
16. If you choose not to purchase health insurance and pay the individual fine, you will still be able to receive coverage when needed because no private insurance program or the government-run program will be allowed to turn you away for a pre-existing condition. As a consequence, those who do purchase health insurance will pay higher premiums to cover the costs of those who will inevitably get sick later.
If you would like to contact Senator Amy Klobuchar today to express your opinion on this bill before the vote, call or fax her DC office.
phone: 202-224-3244
fax: 202-228-2186
If you would like to contact Senator Al Franken, call his DC office.
(202) 224-5641
Want to learn more about what Health Care Reform really is? Click here:
Politics 101: What is Health Care Reform
For more information on what Health Care Reform means for you, click here:
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Follow me on Twitter today! I'll be watching the debate on the Senate floor and updating periodically with quotes from Senators and facts about health care reform! Click here!
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